Innate Sword Body

Li Jiusheng never expected that his golden finger would appear when he was already a hundred years old.

He was overjoyed.

He had long since resigned himself to fate, thinking he would simply grow old and die in Shangqing Palace, but now he could only say that a hundred years was precisely the time to strive.

For those who had achieved success in cultivation, a hundred years was merely the blink of an eye.

Now he had not only obtained Li Tianxian's [Grass and Wood Sword Technique] but also her Innate Sword Body—this was the peerless talent of the sword cultivator lineage, naturally attuned to the sword from birth. What took others three to five years to master in swordsmanship, an Innate Sword Body could grasp in a single practice. It was as if the heavens themselves were feeding him.

At the same time, a vast stretch of memories surged into his body along with a peculiar energy. Li Jiusheng closed his eyes, hearing only the resonant hum of swords deep within his soul, crashing like a torrent and scouring every part of him.

His body was being remade. The old, decrepit flesh was washed away by sword energy, bit by bit shedding his former shell and replacing it with an Innate Sword Body.

This process lasted a long time—so long that the bright moon had descended from the high pavilion and the sky was faintly turning pale at the horizon before Li Jiusheng opened his eyes and exhaled a mouthful of turbid breath.

Clang!

That breath of turbid air transformed into sword energy, slashing directly into the floor tiles and carving a small crack into them.

Li Jiusheng stood up, finding his body light and his steps unhurried, devoid of the former sense of aged decay.

He walked to the mirror and saw that his appearance hadn't changed, but his overall feeling had shed a dozen years. His body brimmed with vitality, shifting from a guttering lamp to a blazing brilliance.

"The Innate Sword Body truly lives up to its reputation. This special constitution not only aids cultivation but also extends lifespan by several centuries." Li Jiusheng was overjoyed inside. Previously, he had achieved nothing in cultivation because of his advanced age and poor innate talent and bone structure. But now, with the Innate Sword Body, restarting his cultivation would surely yield twice the results with half the effort.

Li Jiusheng closed his eyes again and examined Li Tianxian's [Grass and Wood Sword Technique].

This sword technique was Li Tianxian's original creation. As Li Jiusheng studied it, the sword forms, insights, sword intent, sword essence, and sword path all unfolded one by one in his mind.

Li Jiusheng watched intently, gradually becoming absorbed, following the Li Tianxian in his sea of consciousness as she executed each move.

The [Grass and Wood Sword Technique] emphasized having a sword in the heart rather than in the hand. When the sword intent was present, everything in heaven and earth—every blade of grass, every tree—could become a sword.

Even though Li Jiusheng held no sword in his hand, he could still practice, and because he also possessed the Innate Sword Body, entering the [Grass and Wood Sword Technique] was extremely simple.

With each move and stance, sword energy coiled around his body, drawing the surrounding spiritual energy into him and nourishing his aged frame.

Fortunately, the Scripture Repository Pavilion was very quiet. In the early hours before dawn, no one came, so Li Jiusheng could cultivate without worry.

With the Innate Sword Body, he practiced the [Grass and Wood Sword Technique] without any pressure, smoothly and effortlessly. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth around the pavilion surged wildly into him, absorbed by Li Jiusheng and transformed into trickles of True Qi, flowing through his limbs, bones, and extraordinary meridians, eventually converging in his Dantian to become his own True Qi. This helped him complete the first stage of the Houtian Realm—Muscle Tempering—and pushed him toward Bone Tempering.

In this world, cultivation was divided into the Houtian Realm and the Xiantian Realm.

The Houtian Realm had three stages: Muscle Tempering, Bone Tempering, and Marrow Tempering.

These three stages were about forging the body. At the beginning of cultivation, a strong physique was necessary to go further.

The [Evergreen Technique] that Li Jiusheng had previously practiced was a wood-type technique with little offensive power, only strengthening the body and extending lifespan. He had trained in it for decades and only reached the peak of the Houtian Realm.

But that peak had gradually declined over the past twenty years. The reason was simple: he was old, his body was decaying, and he could only regress step by step—from the peak of Postnatal Triple Layer down to not even the first layer.

Now, restarting his cultivation, Li Jiusheng had to climb again from the first stage of the Houtian Realm.

But none of that mattered.

With the Innate Sword Body and the [Grass and Wood Sword Technique], his cultivation speed was something Li Jiusheng could never have imagined in the past.

Muscle Tempering was completed, and Bone Tempering began immediately. Spiritual energy seeped from his meridians and muscles into his bones, expelling impurities and improving his bone structure. Combined with the Innate Sword Body, the progress was rapid.

That night, Li Jiusheng's aged body was reborn anew.

It was like a dried-up riverbed suddenly flooded with a vast amount of water. In an instant, grass and trees revived, fish gathered in schools, and all things radiated vibrant life.

Bone Tempering was complete. He had been given a new lease on life.

At daybreak, Li Jiusheng opened his eyes and looked at himself in the mirror, startled by what he saw.

He was still the same person.

Still old.

But in the subtle details, he was utterly different from the night before.

His back was no longer hunched but stood straight as a pine. His skin no longer sagged but had become firm. His hands and feet were strong, and his body exuded a thick vitality. The dry, weed-like hair on his head had grown sturdy; though still white, it was glossy and smooth. Compared to the night before, he looked at least twenty years younger.

"Just starting to cultivate, and already such a change—is this the talent of a prodigy?" Li Jiusheng recalled the decades he had spent tremblingly cultivating, only to make less progress than this single dawn, and couldn't help but laugh bitterly.

He had once heard of the gap between mortals and prodigies but hadn't taken it seriously, thinking, How big could the difference between people really be?

Now it seemed that the gap between people was greater than the gap between heaven and earth.

"One dawn has let me shed my old self. As long as I persist in cultivation, I will surely glimpse the great path of longevity." Ambition stirred in Li Jiusheng's heart. The legendary immortality and invincibility—he could attain them too.

In his early years, Li Jiusheng had been ambitious, but because he only had one life, he was cautious. He dared not go to dangerous places or do dangerous things, since he hadn't awakened his golden finger back then.

This had cost him many opportunities.

"The youth who once drank and laughed with me has now become one of the prodigies."

That year, a young man had invited Li Jiusheng to go overseas to seek a master, but the seas were turbulent and guarded by various foreign races, so Li Jiusheng declined.

Years later, that young man had made a name for himself battling foreign races overseas. Li Jiusheng had learned of it by chance.

These days, he often recalled the past.

If only he hadn't been so cautious back then.

If only he had been a little braver.

Isn't the situation different now?

The years gone by marked the beginning of an era of great contention, and even now, it remains breathtaking—countless prodigies, endless geniuses rising one after another, an inexhaustible stream of remarkable figures.

This age is called the Era of Kings Rising. Each king shakes the past and present; the mightiest attain immortality among mortals, claim kingship in foreign lands, fight through yellow sands in a hundred battles, leaving behind countless legends.

A foreign king crossed the sea, sweeping across eighty thousand miles of the mortal world, forcing every expert into a pall of despair.

A woman in red achieved immortality among mortals, her three thousand strands of black hair coiling up three thousand worlds.

A Daoist in purple robes roamed the mortal realm, raising a hand to shatter half the mountains and rivers.

And the Master, who had comprehended the Dao in the heavens for eighty years, his cultivation no longer bound to the mortal world.

So many prodigies, so many legends—how difficult the Great Dao is, burying white bones beneath yellow sands. Li Jiusheng only regretted that he had not taken part in this flourishing age of cultivation. Believing his time was short, he never expected to awaken a Golden Finger by chance. Now, he had the confidence to see for himself what the people of this world called the Great Dao truly was.